In this week’s preview we look at the origins of Storm Knights, how reality storms work, introduce you to some of the iconic Storm Knights in Torg Eternity, and finally, give you a sample archetype.

A Moment of Crisis

Although the High Lords refer to those beings who become reality-rated during an invasion as “Stormers” due to the proximity of reality storms occurring nearby, those of a more heroic nature prefer to call themselves Storm Knights.

When a clash of realities occurs, ordinary people often transform to the invading reality and forever become a denizen of that cosm. Some special individuals, however, transcend the transformation and become reality-rated. Transcendence requires two additional elements: a conflict between two realities and a strong moral choice. When all three qualities coincide, the individual transcends her “moment of crisis” and becomes reality-rated. Unlike Original Torg, this is the only way for a character to become reality-rated.

The choice to fight for the invaded reality doesn’t necessarily mean the person remains a denizen of that reality. Occasionally the individual transforms to the invading reality. The transformed Storm Knight still fights for Core Earth, just as an ally from the other side, with all the new skills and abilities to go with it.

Reality Storms

Reality storms are a fact of life as a Storm Knight. If caught within one, a hero can lose Possibilities or even transform. On the other hand, an exceptional reality test result can grant the Storm Knight additional Possibilities. The stronger the zone though, the harder it is to resist the effects of the reality storm. Storm Knights beware if caught in a reality storm in a Pure Zone!

Core Earth Storm Knights can select the Storm Caller Perk (once they gain considerable experience with reality). This allows the individual to invoke a reality storm against a reality-rated Stormer from a different cosm. The rules for invoked reality storms are different from Original Torg. It’s a contest of reality skill vs. reality skill, with successes draining Possibilities from the opponent. However, the participants can’t gain Possibilities from the each other…they’re lost to the universe. The loser of the reality storm contest ends up drained of Possibilities, Very Stymied, and Very Vulnerable, but does not transform…unless a Critical Problem comes up on the Drama Deck during the struggle. In that situation, if either participant fails her reality test, she becomes drained of Possibilities, reality skill adds, and transforms to the other reality!

Meet the Defenders of Core Earth

Torg Eternity features a diverse cast of iconic characters, from across the globe and from other realities. You’ve seen many of them in the art samples in these previews, but here’s the lowdown on all of the characters featured in the core book.

Archetypes

Over a dozen archetypes, many based on the iconic characters, will be included in a package with the Torg Eternity GM screen, including:

Dragon Warrior (Aysle)

Elven Warden (Aysle)

Unstoppable Cop (Core Earth)

Realm Runner (Core Earth)

Renegade Priest (Cyberpapacy)

Cyber Witch (Cyberpapacy)

Edeinos Optant (Living Land)

Primitive Hunter (Living Land)

Masked Crusader (Nile Empire)

Eccentric Inventor (Nile Empire)

Monster Hunter (Orrorsh)

Relic Raider (Core Earth)

Electric Samurai (Pan-Pacifica)

Hard-Boiled Detective (Pan-Pacifica)

Resistance Fighter (Tharkold)

Scrap Warrior (Tharkold)

And don’t worry if you don’t want to use an archetype. There’s a full character generation system in the core book.

Here’s a sample archetype, the Dragon Warrior!

Do You Want to Know More?

If you’re looking to get more information on Torg Eternity, or if you have any questions, just head on over to our forums and ask away!

Attributes are way lower than the previous edition. Why ?
The adversaries are weaker too ?
What’s the average attribute for a norm.
Because, if i’ts only 8, it seems that Storm Knights aren’t what they should be : above the norms, even from the beginning….

That’s actually a very nicely built character sheet, well-organized. You can tell a lot about a game under production or release by the care the developers put into the character sheet. It might sound silly, but it’s also very true, in my experience. I normally end up developing a new character sheet for the RPGs I run, simply because a good deal of information important to my game is not represented in the ability to record it or the sheet is just piss-poorly arranged. If you come up with an excellent system, and/or are re-developing an old system, you can make the rules and the artwork and the examples of play as beautiful and complete as possible, but the record sheet can end up distracting from how good a game actually is. Players typically don’t read the rule books, looking only at the information they need, so a bad character sheet is that much more distracting.

This one, though… I’ll have to wait until I see the game you’ve developed, but this one looks good.

How did Quinn Sebastian come by the knowledge to fight this Possibility War? Perhaps because he’s already fought once before?!? It’s good to see at least one of the originals back in the game! Can’t wait!

So, pulp-powered heroes or martial artists no longer have to be reality-rated, since they have existed in their home cosms before the possibility wars(and any chance of conflict between realities, which is necessary to the moment of crisis)?